When I Was a Slave

Memoirs from the Slave Narrative Collection

Norman R. Yetman

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9780486420707
• eBook ISBN: 9780486111391
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Science Biographies
• Index: Social Sciences

In an effort to provide unemployed writers with work during the Great Depression of the 1930s, the United States Government, through the Works Progress Administration (WPA), funded the Federal Writers' Project. One of the group's most noteworthy and enduring achievements was the Slave Narrative Collection, consisting of more than 2,000 transcripts of interviews with former slaves, who, in blunt, simple words, provided often-startling first-person accounts of their lives in bondage. This book reprints some of the most detailed and engrossing life histories in the collection. Each narrative is complete.
Thirty-four gripping testimonies are included, with all slave occupations represented — from field hand and cook to French tutor and seamstress. Personal treatment reported by these individuals also encompassed a wide range — from the most harsh and exploitative to living and working conditions that were intimate and benevolent.
An illuminating and unique source of information about life in the South before, during, and after the Civil War, these memoirs, most importantly, preserve the opinions and perspective of those who were enslaved. Invaluable to students, teachers, and specialists in Southern history, this compelling book will intrigue anyone interested in the African-American experience.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Narrators
• MARY ANDERSON - Interviewed near Raleigh, North Carolina Interviewed by Pat Matthews Age when interviewed: 86
• MARY ARMSTRONG - Interviewed at Houston, Texas Interviewer not identified Age when interviewed: 91
• FRANK BELL - Interviewed at Madisonville, Texas Interviewer not identified Age when interviewed: 86+
• BOSTON BLACKWELL - Interviewed at North Little Rock, Arkansas Interviewed by Beulah Sherwood Hagg Age when interviewed: 98
• W. L. BOST - Interviewed at Asheville, North Carolina Interviewed by Marjorie Jones Age when interviewed: 88
• JULIA BROWN - Interviewed at Atlanta, Georgia Interviewed by Geneva Tonsill Age when interviewed: 85
• ANTHONY DAWSON - Interviewed at Tulsa, Oklahoma Interviewer not identified Age when interviewed: 105
• MILLIE EVANS - Interviewed at El Dorado, Arkansas Interviewed by Mrs. Carol Graham Age when interviewed: 88
• MRS. M. S. FAYMAN - Interviewed at Baltimore, Maryland Interviewed by———Rogers Age when interviewed: 87
• JOHN FINNELY - Interviewed at Forth Worth, Texas Interviewer not identified Age when interviewed: 86
• DELIA GARLIC - Interviewed in Montgomery, Alabama Interviewed by Margaret Fowler Age when interviewed: 100
• ROBERT GLENN - Interviewed at Raleigh, North Carolina Interviewed by Pat Matthews Age when interviewed: 87
• ANDREW GOODMAN - Interviewed at Dallas, Texas Interviewer not identified Age when interviewed: 97
• ARNOLD GRAGSTON - Interviewed in Jacksonville, Florida Interviewed by Martin Richardson Age when interviewed: 97
• MARY ELLA GRANDBERRY - Interviewed at Sheffield, Alabama Interviewed by Levi D. Shelby Jr. Age when interviewed: 90
• SARAH GUDGER - Interviewed in Asheville, North Carolina Interviewed by Marjorie Jones Age when interviewed: 121
• MARTIN JACKSON - Interviewed at San Antonio, Texas Interviewer not identified Age when interviewed: 90
• SILAS JACKSON - Interviewed at Baltimore, Maryland Interviewed by———Rogers Age when interviewed: 90
• LEWIS JENKINS - Interviewed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Interviewed by Ida Belle Hunter Age when interviewed: 93
• TINES KENDRICKS - Interviewed at Trenton, Arkansas Interviewed by Watt McKinney Age when interviewed: 104
• FANNIE MOORE - Interviewed at Asheville, North Carolina Interviewed by Marjorie Jones Age when interviewed: 88
• WILLIAM MOORE - Interviewed in Dallas, Texas Interviewed by Heloise M. Foreman Age when interviewed: 83
• ANDREW MOSS - Interviewed at Knoxville, Tennessee Interviewer not identified Age when interviewed: 85
• DELICIA PATTERSON - Interviewed at St. Louis, Missouri Interviewer not identified Age when interviewed: 92
• MARY REYNOLDS - Interviewed at Dallas, Texas Interviewer not identified Age when interviewed: 100+
• HARRIETT ROBINSON - Interviewed at Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Interviewer not identified Age when interviewed: 94
• TOM ROBINSON - Interviewed near Hot Springs, Arkansas Interviewed by Mary D. Hudgins Age when interviewed: 88
• ROBERT SHEPHERD - Interviewed at Athens, Georgia Interviewed by Grace McCune Age when interviewed: 91
• BILL SIMMS - Interviewed in Ottawa, Kansas Interviewed by Leta Gray Age when interviewed: 97
• BEN SIMPSON - Interviewed at Madisonville, Texas Interviewer not identified Age when interviewed: 90
• GUS SMITH - Interviewed at Rolla, Missouri Interviewer not identified Age when interviewed: 92
• ROSA STARKE - Interviewed in Winnsboro, South Carolina Interviewed by W. W. Dixon Age when interviewed: 83
• MINGO WHITE - Interviewed at Burleson, Alabama Interviewed by Levi D. Shelby Jr. Age when interviewed: 85–90
• ROSE WILLIAMS - Interviewed in Ft. Worth, Texas Interviewer not identified Age when interviewed: 90
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